9 THE ROCKETS- Mein Girl und ich (1968)

While Vienna’s progressive youth had long adopted a dowdy underground look that mandated long hair and the Hippie accessories to match, the Rockets still sported neck ties, matching double-breasted suits with their own coat of arms (!) embroidered to the front, and neat, short hair. Contemporaries could witness regular appearances at Volksgarten, the Tenne, or similar in-crowd discotheques in the capital.

Everybody else must approach the five-piece by the three charming singles they released with the small Accordia label between 1967 and 1968. The infectious Garage ballad “Mein Girl und ich” was the flip side to their second release, and hit the local market in early 1968. Catchy, German-language Schlager Beat songs in the wake of the Bambis: At the times of Jimi Hendrix, Deep Purple and the Manson Family, this is so excessively anachronistic that it is in fact pretty cool.